Always-Be-Ready PR

The other day, as I pulled out of my driveway, I noticed a chimney sweep van sitting in front of my next-door neighbor’s house. “I need a chimney sweep,” I thought, wondering if I might be able to get a business card rather than bother my neighbor with a call for the number. I caught the worker’s attention and called out. “Do you have a card?”
Well, you might have thought I asked him how much he had in his 401K or something. He seemed genuinely flustered and so naturally I felt bad for interrupting the flow of things. Still, as he got himself together, he seemed to grow more enthusiastic as, finally, he presented his filthy, tattered card (his last one, he said) to me. I slipped it into my purse and thought, if only he knew how easy PR can be . . .
Perhaps the chimney sweep isn’t the best example, but hopefully you’re getting my point: you should always be prepared to pitch yourself, your client, whatever. It’s sort of the first cousin of the elevator speech. Too often, people confuse shameless self-promotion (I wrote about that recently in this blog) with obnoxious behavior that makes us cringe or completely ignore the situation.
But remember something: one’s enthusiasm for the work he or she does is infectious, impressive, and can translate into revenue. It’s hard to put a dollar figure on the value we can give our clients when it comes to the obvious. Let me put it another way: placements are gold, especially the ones that land your client onto CNN or the Today Show. But there’s something really valuable about showing our clients how to ratchet up their efforts in ways that can’t always be apparent with a placement. If your clients aren’t excited about the work they do, it’s going to show whether it’s an informal conversation with an associate, an interview on the local news, or in the shape of one’s business card.